


Hug It Out

by missred



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Gen, Hugs, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Out of Character, Protect and Love Bruce Banner 2kforever, Scrabble, family game night at avengers tower, maybe idk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-19
Updated: 2016-06-19
Packaged: 2018-07-15 22:52:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 659
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7242025
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/missred/pseuds/missred
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bruce maybe needs a hug. Bucky isn't scared of who he sometimes is.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hug It Out

Bruce probably doesn't let himself hug people--most people flinch away. Even Nat, even if it's subtle. Bucky doesn't.

 

One night, they're playing scrabble; in teams because there's too many of them to play it regularly.

Nat and Clint had called each other and Sam had called Steve, who shrugged apologetically.

Tony called dibs on Thor in the hopes that he would have the whole language thing no one else knew working for him, but the rest of the team had vetoed Asgardian words right off the bat.

In the end, that left Bucky, looking sort of rueful, shuffling towards Bruce. They make a surprisingly good team. Bucky can remember bits and pieces of other languages he knew as the Winter Soldier, and Bruce whips out science-y terms even Tony hasn't thought of. It’s kind of fun. Bucky settles in, comfortable with Steve across from him and Natasha on his left. He manages to stretch “plum” into a 26 point word through a couple tricky maneuvers where he doubled up to created multiple words, and Thor slaps him on the back in friendly admiration. Bucky barely thinks about snapping his wrist, it’s a flutter of an idea and then it’s gone and he can smile back and be genuinely glad. It’s nice. After a triple word score, Bruce’s doing, (double letter and it had a "z", Bucky isn't exactly sure what it means), they win.

The word uses up the last off their tiles and everyone else is stuck subtracting their leftover tiles out of their score, Nat and Clint both muttering mutinously.

Bucky whoops loudly, leans over, and hugs Bruce. No hesitation, no fear.

Bruce lets out his breath in a surprised huff and Bucky pulls back immediately, going stiff and watchful.

"You okay?"

"What? um--yeah," Bruce is still processing. No one touched him like that. Ever.

"Thought I hurt you." Bucky mumbles, and Bruce barks out a shocked laugh.

Kid, you couldn't hurt me if you tried."

Bucky cocks his head, turning sideways like a dog.

"Huh."

The rest of the team is still grumbling and cleaning up when Bucky leans over, slower this time, and hugs Bruce hard and deliberate. He pulls tight like he's trying to push some piece of Bruce back together and Bruce relaxes almost imperceptibly. Bucky notices. He doesn’t let go.

 

He starts noticing a lot more after that. Notices how everyone but Tony holds themselves tight around Bruce. And even Tony has a kind of caution Bucky doesn't like. He's most mad at Steve, once he starts noticing. Steve who never treated _him_ like he was anything other than the kid he grew up with, acting like Bruce was a threat. He wasn't. He was the safest thing Bucky had found since he got his head back. Bruce was calm and gentle, with a soft smile and tired eyes. Eyes that lit up when Bucky asked him to explain some idea he'd been working on. Bucky realized it'd been a long, long, time since anyone had touched him and not been scared. It made him angry and sad somewhere deep in his gut and punching out the wall in Stark's home gym hadn't helped. Hugging Bruce helped. So that's what he did, whenever he felt like it. Which, as it turned out, was kind of lot.

Bruce never stopped being surprised at it, which made Bucky a different kind of sad.

"You know I'm not scared of you, old man." Bucky says, head buried in the deep purple of Bruce's shoulder.

"You should be." Bruce says, calmly, not sad. "Everyone else is."

Bucky squeezes him tighter, just because he wants to.

"Everyone else is stupid. And you give good hugs."

Bruce pauses for a moment like he’s going to say something and then hugs him back hard, for a moment. Then he lets go and turns back to the charts he was working on.

Bucky smiles, warm easy, and wide.

**Author's Note:**

> This might read as totally out of character for both of them and I apologize for that. I just really needed Bruce getting hugged by someone who wasn't afraid of him. Also kind of created on accident to torture still_emo, so she can take some of the blame probably.


End file.
